The Revellers Part 55

"Who told you?" he inquired.

"Angle, sir. But Mrs. Saumarez did not wish people to use her t.i.tle.

She was vexed with Angle for even mentioning it."

Mrs. Saumarez sent her car to bring Colonel Grant and his son to the Hall. She was slightly ruffled when Fritz told her that they had gone already, Mr. Beckett-Smythe having collected his guests from both the inn and the vicarage.

She might have been positively indignant if she had overheard Grant's comments to the Admiralty official while the two strolled on the lawn before dinner.

"A couple of Prussian officers, if ever I saw the genuine article," said the colonel. "Real junkers--smart-looking fellows, too. Mrs. Saumarez is the widow of a British officer--a fine chap, but poor as a church mouse--and she belongs to a wealthy German family. _Verb.u.m sap._"

"Nuff said," grinned the sailor. "But what is one to do? No sooner is this outfit erected but it'll be added to the display of local picture postcards, and the next German bigwig who visits this part of the country will be invited to amuse himself by ringing up Bremen."

At any rate, Mrs. Saumarez was told that night that the Yorks.h.i.+re coast was too highly magnetized to suit a wireless station. The sailor thought an inland town like York would provide an ideal site.

"You see," he explained politely, "when the German High Seas Fleet defeats the British Navy it can sh.e.l.l our coast towns all to smithereens."

She smiled.

"You fighting men invariably talk of war with Germany as an a.s.sured thing," she said. "Yet I, who know Germany, and have relatives there, am convinced that the notion is absurd."

"The Emperor has been twenty years on the throne and has never drawn sword except on parade," put in the vicar. "There may have been danger once or twice in his hot youth, but he has grown to like England, and I cannot conceive him plunging a great and thriving country into the mora.s.s of a doubtful campaign."

"Ninety-nine per cent of Englishmen like to think that way," said the Admiralty man. "In a mult.i.tude of counselors there is wisdom, so let's hope they're right."

When the young folk got together on the terrace, Frank Beckett-Smythe asked Martin why his neck was stiff.

"I took a toss off Elsie's swing yesterday," was the airy answer. Not a word did he or Elsie say as to Angle, and the Beckett-Smythes knew better than to introduce her name.

Mrs. Saumarez left for the South rather hurriedly. She paid no farewell visits. She and Angle traveled in the car; Franoise followed with the baggage. The Misses Walker were consoled for the loss of a valued lodger by receiving a less exacting one in the person of Martin's father.

The boy himself, when his mental poise was adjusted to the phenomenal change in his life, soon grew accustomed to a new environment. Mr.

Herbert undertook to direct his studies in preparation for a public school, and Martha Bolland became reconciled gradually to seeing him once or twice daily, instead of all day, for he, too, lived at The Elms.

Officially, as it were, he adopted his new name, but to the small world of Elmsdale he would ever be "Martin." Even his father fell into the habit.

The colonel drove him to the adjourned petty sessions at Nottonby when Betsy's case came on for hearing. Mr. Stockwell abandoned his critical att.i.tude and concurred with the police that there was no need to bring Angle Saumarez from London to attend the trial. Mrs. Saumarez gave no thought to the fact that the girl might be needed to give evidence, but the authorities decided that there were witnesses in plenty as to the outcry raised in the garden after Pickering was wounded.

It was November before Betsy appeared at the county a.s.sizes. When she entered the dock, those who knew her were astonished by the improvement in her appearance. It was probable that the enforced rest, the regular exercise, the judicious diet of the prison had exercised a beneficial effect on her health.

Her demeanor was calm as ever, and the able barrister who defended her did not scruple to suggest that it would create a better effect with the jury if she adopted a less unemotional att.i.tude.

Her reply silenced him.

"Do you think," she said, "that I will be permitted to atone for my wrongdoing by punishment? No. I live because my husband wished me to live. I will be called to account, but not by an earthly judge or jury."

She was right. The a.s.size judge held the scales of justice impartially between the sworn testimony of George Pickering and Betsy's witnesses, on the one hand, and the evidence of Martin and the groom, backed by the scientists, on the other.

The jury gave her the benefit of the doubt and acquitted her, but it was noticed by many that his lords.h.i.+p contented himself with ordering her discharge from custody. He pa.s.sed no opinion on the verdict.

So Betsy was installed as mistress of Wetherby Lodge, the trustees having decided that she was well fitted to manage the estate.

Tongues wagged in Elmsdale when Mr. Stockwell drove thither one day and solemnly handed over to Martin the sword and the double-barreled gun, and to John Bolland the pedigree cow bequeathed by George Pickering.

The farmer eyed the animal grimly.

"'Tis an unfortunate beast," he said. "Mebbe if I hadn't sold her te poor George he might nivver hae coom te Elmsdale just then."

"Do not think that," the solicitor a.s.sured him. "Pickering would most certainly have visited the fair. I know, as a matter of fact, that he wished to purchase one of your brood mares."

"Ay, ay. She went te Jarmany. Well, if I'm spared, I'll send a good calf to Wetherby."

The lawyer and he shook hands on the compact. Yet Pickering's odd bequest was destined to work out in a way that would have amazed the donor, could he but know it.

Martin was at Winchester--his father's old school--when he received a letter in Bolland's laborious handwriting. It read:

"MY DEAR LAD--Yours to hand, and this leaves your mother and self in good health. We were glad to hear that the box arrived all right and that your mates think well of Yorks.h.i.+re cakes. You may learn a lot of useful things at school, but you will not often meet with a better cook than your mother. She is sore upset just now about a mishap we have had on the farm. I turned out nearly all my shorthorns to graze on the low pastures. The ground was a bit damp, and a strange cow broke in at night to join them. I don't rightly know what to blame, but next day they showed signs of rinderpest. I sent for the vet, and they had to be slaughtered--all but one two-year-old bull, Bainesse Boy IV., and Mr. Pickering's cow, which were not with them in the meadow. It is a great loss, but I don't repine, now that you are provided for, and it is not quite like starting all over again, as I have my land and my Cleveland bays, and I am in no debt. In such matters I turn to the Lord for consolation. I have just read this verse to Martha: 'I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' If you are minded to look it up, you will find it in the Thirty-seventh Psalm.

"I don't want to pretend that the blow has not been a hard one, but, G.o.d willing, there will be a hamper for you at Christmas, if Colonel Grant is too busy to bring you North. Your mother joins in much love.

"Your affect., "JOHN BOLLAND."

"P. S.--Maybe you will not have forgotten that Mrs. Saumarez said the land needed draining. She was a clever woman in some ways."

The boy's eyes filled with tears. He understood only too well the far-reaching misfortune which had befallen the farmer. The total value of the herd was 5,000, and he remembered that experts valued the young surviving bull at 300 as a yearling. In all, twenty-three animals had been slaughtered by the law's decree, and the compensation payable to Bolland would not cover a twentieth part of the actual loss.

Martin not only wrote a letter of warm sympathy to his adopted parents but sent Bolland's letter to his father, with an added commentary of his own. Colonel Grant obtained short leave and traveled to Elmsdale next day. It took some trouble to bring John round to his point of view, but the argument that the farm should be restocked in Martin's interests prevailed, and negotiations were opened with prominent breeders elsewhere which resulted in the purchase of a notable bull and eight heifers, for which Bolland and the colonel each found half the money.

The farmer would listen to no other arrangement, though he promised that if he experienced any tightness for money he would not hesitate to apply for further help.

The need never made itself felt. The first animal to produce successful progeny was George Pickering's cow! No man in the North Riding was more pleased than John that day. Throughout the whole of his life the only person who ever brought a charge of unfair dealing against him was Pickering. The memory rankled, and its sting was none the less bitter because of a secret dread that he had perhaps been guilty of a piece of sharp practice. Now his character was cleared.

Pattison, his old crony, asked him, by way of a joke, how much "he'd tak' for t' cauf."

John blazed into unexpected anger.

"At what figger de you reckon yer own good nem, Mr. Pattison?"

"I don't kno as I'd care te sell it at onny price, Mr. Bollan'."

"Then ye'll think as I do aboot yon cauf. Neyther it nor any other of its dam's produce will ivver leave my farm if I can help it."

CHAPTER XIX

OUT OF THE MISTS